Things of the Past: Toy Stores
My recent YouTube viewing, which included finding a couple of videos about people saying they missed certain stores, like Toys R Us, had me thinking about toy stores in general. They’re just not a thing anymore, and that’s a little sad.
Many people blamed Amazon for killing Geoffrey the Giraffe, and that might be partly true. But you know what really killed Toys R Us? Their ridiculous prices. I’m not sure how those marked up prices didn’t kill them long before. It’s not like, before Amazon, people didn’t have other choices. They did. For example, my favorite toy store, also gone now, was KB Toys. They may have been smaller, but they were much more affordable, found conveniently in a lot of malls, and seemed to have happier employees than Toys R Us did. I mean, have you ever actually been in a Toys R Us? Not only were they stupid expensive, they were not an inviting, happy place to visit. They sucked all the fun out of looking for toys, and toy shopping should be fun!
Before writing this, I tried to find local toy stores around where I live. I knew there were at least a couple, but I found out those are gone now as well. One of them closed down due to the loss of business during the pandemic. That store was located downtown, which was pretty much a ghost town for many months.
The only local toy stores I could find were not the average toy store. They were places that specialized in collectible figures, LEGO, and things like that. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything that was an actual, traditional, toy store. So it seems that toy stores are a thing of the past.
I really hope I won’t ever have a “Things of the Past” post about book stores. Speaking of book stores… I really miss Borders.
